Like Egypt other countries have to look to Red Sea for food security. Nile is no more a property of Egypt. 18 countries share its water !!! Read this article. Low carbon energy
source that can supply electricity is the future solution for Egypt’s problems. Other countries will follow!!
“A reliable and resilient electric system is essential to protecting public health and fostering economic growth and job creation. ……………………………. Consumers utilize heating, air conditioning, computers, and appliances with few disruptions. Nonetheless, there are significant changes occurring within the electric system that could profoundly affect the economy and even national security, and as such, these changes require further study and investigation. Baseload power is necessary to a well functioning electric grid. We are blessed as a nation to have an abundance of domestic energy resources, such as coal, natural gas, nuclear, and hydroelectric, all of which provide affordable baseload power and contribute to a stable, reliable, and resilient grid. Over the last few years, however, grid experts have expressed concerns about the erosion of critical baseload resources………………………….” This is the statement of US DOE Secretary Perry.
A robust electrical grid network is very essential for a healthy economy. Take for example the geothermal belt of the Himalayas………………the Chinese have a vision. They are putting this carbon free energy source to better use by establishing a very good grid network to support the Silk Route. This idea was conceived about three years ago at a workshop conducted in Wuhan. Top scientists from USGS, British Geological Survey, Turkey, Afghanistan, Taiwan , India and China of course attended the workshop by invitation……..in fact all the countries falling close to the silk route were invited to presented their views on how to power the Silk Road and gave a road map.
After the conference people disbursed…..there was a period of quiescence. Now the road is taking shape and perhaps the entire road will be powered by geothermal. India too has “sufficient geothermal on our side” to uplift the entire Leh Community and protect the pristine Himalayan environment and ofcurse our army bases in Chumathang. Due to lakh of grid connectivity hundreds of Orphan Tibet children suffer from biting cold (-25 °C). It does not take much time to lay a grid from the geothermal sites to the villages around Leh. The major beneficiary will be the army, who spends millions litres of diesel ( with low efficiency) to keep their system going…….diesel air lifted from the neaby airports. Indian should have an excellent command over the entire NE part of Ladakh. We allow Chinese to dump their solar panels at incredibly low cost and boast generating solar power at Rs 3/kWh……..of course with subsidy.
“ What’s not to like? Plenty. Solar power has many hidden subsidies. Its true cost is far higher than for thermal power…………………..At an investor conference last year, one solar entrepreneur estimated the true cost of solar power (sans implicit and explicit subsidies) at Rs. 6/ unit without storage and Rs 8/unit with storage. A captive coal based power station working flat out yields power at just Rs. 2.50/unit, far cheaper than solar power. Commercial thermal power plants have quoted Rs. 1.77 to 4/unit……Solar costs are falling fast……….Speed is not a virtue. Rising solar targets repeatedly looks green and good, but has hidden, potentially disastrous costs…” reports “SWAMINOMICS” on 16 April 2017. We have > 70% population without grid connected electricity. It is not difficult to get this work done…it is question of mind set. When intentions are above politics, things will work.
“The photovoltaic industry has been low margin for so many periods in its history that the concept of a margin healthy enough to profitably run an entire company is anathema to it. Focus on the benefits of multi gigawatt economies of scale on margins belies the lengths that PV manufacturers have undergone to salvage margin; lengths that include sourcing lower cost and thus lower quality backsheets, EVA, glass, junction boxes and polysilicon”…………….states a news item in “Renewable Energy News 11 April 2017”. Fortunately or unfortunately the cost is controlled by China’s photovoltaic industry and not individual contrives promoting solar. Cost of land, water, grid and back up systems costs dictates the unit cost of power. Country’s socio economic status will be health only when subsidies are removed.
It is not so in the case of geothermal. This energy source can afford to supply energy at affordable cost without subsidy. In the current context, where countries are starving for fresh water, geothermal sourced desalination plants will provide water for the asking at any point of time in the future for agricultural, domestic and other sectors in any country and this is so important in GCC and MENA countries. GCC and Sub-Saharan countries are flushing with geothermal energy sources associated with active volcanic activity. Kenya is already generating 1228 million units of electricity and another 27800 units are awaiting to be developed. Similarly Ethiopia (788 million units) Eritrea ( 891 million units) and Djibouti (900 million units) have large energy resource under development. The focus for these countries should be to develop carbon low energy to generate fresh water from Red Sea and the Mediterranean sea. Both steam and electricity from geothermal sources are best suited to operate MED, MFD, MVC and RO desalination technologies, that are energy intensive and currently operated through fossil fuels and emitting large volumes of CO2. The desalinated water that can be generated sourcing geothermal energy varies from 148 million cubic metres ( R Yemen) to 1302 million cubic metres (Kenya). Small countries like Eritrea and Djibouti that can generate similar volumes may not be in a position to utilize the entire desalinated water. Such countries can supply fresh water to neighbouring countries. These developing and below poverty countries can come out of VWT and secure food and water security and increase the GDP. All the riparian countries located on the upper catchment area of the Nile are currently not utilizing their legitimate quantity of blue water due to the prevailing political situation. This will be history soon as due to growing population, there is a tremendous pressure on the Govt. to increase the utility of the Nile forcing the countries like Egypt to fall under severe water stressed status. Out of all the riparian countries located along the Nile, Egypt is on the top of development and socio economic status. By 2025 when its population crosses 106 million, Egypt cannot bank on its conventionally sources desalination plants neither the currently solar pv operated RO plants can meet the demand., Besides hydrothermal, Egypt has enormous EGS sources and by 2025 this technology will mature fully and the granites can sources about 7 billion units that to the desalination plants with low carbon emissions. Then the country will be in a position to bail out of water stressed situation and provide about 1000 m3/y of per capita fresh water to its population. Saudi Arabia has realized the importance of geothermal now…..after a series of publications on the resources potential along the western shield. In a recent statement the energy minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced that by 2025 geothermal will be developed. This is good and health sigh to reduce use of oil when other energy sources along the coast is available. Since the Red Sea is highly saline (TDS 50000 ppm) high energy intensive desalination technology is needed to generate comfortable volumes of desalinated water. Desalinated water with solar source costs anywhere between 4.8 to 11 US$/1000L while geothermal source will bring down the cost by one third….a good example is the Milos island…..selling 1000L of desalinated water at 1.6 US$. Cost can be further reduced ………………….need political will and mind set…………countries need not patent such ideas.
About 884 million people in the world have no access to drinking water and many countries are either importing large quantities of food or supporting agricultural produce outside the country there by throwing food security outside the country. By 2025 this number will touch 4 billion. Can not imagine countries without water!! This is especially so with Gulf and MENA countries. As on today nearly 70 million tones worth of food grains are imported by these countries and the number is growing with exponential growth of population. Apparently this increase is related to lack of fresh water, groundwater as well as surface water in these countries. The rainfall is scanty and thus there is no source to recharge the aquifers. Many aquifers, to enhance the problem further, are trans-boundary in nature ad hence there is always war for water. As it has been said, the future war will be fought for water and not for power or territory. For example, the Saq Ram sandstone aquifer shared between Saudi Arabia and Jordan; the Umm er Raduma Eocene limestone aquifer shared between Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman. These are formation-waters and once the aquifer is emptied, no more water can be withdrawn from it. Here is a rat race!!! Wo will draw excess water to support their needs……not only for domestic but for irrigation purpose? According to the world Commission on Water, the global demand for fresh water will in crease by 50% over the next 30 years from the present consumption. Several Gulf and MENA countries have put in place desalination plants to meet fresh water demand for domestic and irrigation purposes. But utilizing fossil fuel based energy for desalination is not a viable and economic solution. Fresh water cost generated by desalination is very expensive and normal person can not afford to purchase it. Further, this process emits large CO2 that is detrimental to the world. In fact countries are fighting for stabilizing CO2 in the atmosphere. A viable technology has to be developed to generate fresh water from the ses through desalination using energy that is cost effective and renewable and green. The Gulf and MENA countries have huge untapped geothermal energy source(s) that can be utilized for desalination. Countries like, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Eritrea, Kuwait, Libya, Egypt, Oman, Bahrain can use geothermal energy for desalination process there by controlling CO2 emissions from the desalination plants as well as from the power plants. Thus the future of the above countries depends on the availability of fresh water.
Agriculture, for example contributes 3% to the GDP of these countries, and because of lack of water, food imports in these countries have increased from 30 million tonnes in 2000 to greater than 70 million tonnes in 2010 and is poised to cross 100 million tonnes by 2020. For example, due to severe water scarcity, Saudi Arabia has increased its food imports from 1.9 in 2012 to 3.02 million in 2014. The annual per-capita water supply has drastically reduced from 3300 cubic metres in 1960 to less than 500 cubic metres. Not only for the Gulf and MENA countries, the entire world has to depend on sea for water. Geothermal energy is cost effective and by using this energy the cost of desalinated water could be brought down to < 3 cents / m3. Now that EGS is maturing with advancement made in drilling technology (plasma drilling will be the future technology) all the countries can be self-sufficient in food and water. Countries have to open and come out of its oil-gas glass house and start implementing new desalination process using geothermal energy. ( for more information read “ Desalination of Seawater using Geothermal Energy to Meet Future Fresh Water Demand of Saudi Arabia in Water Resources Management in J. Water Resources Management.
At present 33 desalination plants are in operation in Saudi Arabia and more than this umber is operating in the Gulf countries around the Persian Gulf. With the government subsidy the cost of desalinated water is 3 US cents/ cubic metre which is far less than the average cost levied by the countries in the world which is 6 US$/cubic meter. If the government subsidy is removed, then the cost will be double the world average. Besides domestic and agricultural sectors, energy sector too needs fresh water. For example the world energy sector in 2010 consumed 583 billion cubic metres of water. According to the report published by the International Energy Agency, this consumption is expected to rise by 85% in 2030. Apparently there will be water crowding in the world and political conflicts since many aquifers and surface water bodies in the Gulf and MENA countries are trans-boundary in nature.
The high water consumers in the power sector are fossil fuel based power plants and nuclear powered plants. Further water is required to irrigate crops to support biofuels based power plants. Solar photo voltaic (solar pv) panels too need water for cleaning and to maintain efficiency, especially in countries like Saudi Arabia. Desalination plants in many countries are working on solar based power, at 20% efficiency (maximum) and generating about 5000 cubic meter / day of fresh water. Water requirement for geothermal power plants are low and these power plants can generate fresh water as well. In Gulf countries, the most important support system that water resources can give to the country is in agricultural sector. The country needs water for agricultural activities, especially for growing staple food wheat and barley. Average per-capita consumption of wheat bread is 241 g per day. Saudi Arabia’s wheat consumption in MY 2013-2014 was 3.25 million metric tones. Due to shortage of fresh water for irrigation, the Govt. has banned wheat cultivation now and the imports have gone up to over 3 million metric tones from 1.9 million metric tones. This is disastrous to any country that puts its food security outside its boundary.
Water stressed situation can be mitigated through developing its geothermal. Saudi Arabia, in fact all the countries around the Red Sea have copious geothermal resources, that are under developed, due to the active tectonic and magmatic activities of the Red Sea. The Harrats along the Arabian shield covered several active drainage systems and thus the paleochannels along the cost have supported high temperature hydrothermal systems with surface temperatures exceeding 90 °C with heat flow values exceeding 95 mW/m2. The bottom hole temperatures recorded in certain oil wells along the Red Sea coast and Suez Gulf varies from 120 to 260 °C. The Red Sea is currently is an active spreading ridge. It has been reported that the estimated power generating capacity of the hydrothermal systems associated with the Harrats is of the order of 173 x 106 kWh/ 1km2 of Harrat. Assuming that about 10 % of energy is extractable from the 90,000 km2 of the Harrats, an amount of 200 x 106 kWh of electric power can be generated from the hydrothermal systems associated with the Harrats. Besides the hydrothermal systems, the Arabian shield region hosts large volumes of high heat generating granites and the estimated power that can be generated from these granites using EGS technology is about 120 x 106 terawatt hour. This geothermal heat can be utilized for membrane distillation process (MD) while other desalination methods like multi effect distillation (MED), multi stage flash. Electro dialysis reversal (EDR) and vapour compression can utilize power generated from the geothermal resources along the Red Sea. The process involves circulation of hot water (temperature of about 60 °C) through a heat exchanger to heat seawater and decrease pressure to vaporise the water in a multi stage chamber. To generate large volume of desalinated water, the heated hot water is circulated to heat several chambers containing seawater through a method known as MED-MSF. In the case of geothermal systems where the temperatures are > 150 °C, power can be generated through binary technology that can be utilized by the desalination companies. About 80m3/h of fresh water can be generated through this process and 470 kwh of electricity can also be cogenerated. The advantage is here is to use multiple desalination methods to using geothermal power and the electricity cogenerated from this process. The estimated cost of desalinated water is about 1.5 euro/m3.
About 884 million people in the world have no access to drinking water and many countries are either importing large quantities of food or supporting agricultural produce outside the country there by throwing food security outside the country. By 2025 this number will touch 4 billion. Can not imagine countries without water!! This is especially so with Gulf and MENA countries. As on today nearly 70 million tones worth of food grains are imported by these countries and the number is growing with exponential growth of population. Apparently this increase is related to lack of fresh water, groundwater as well as surface water in these countries. The rainfall is scanty and thus there is no source to recharge the aquifers. Many aquifers, to enhance the problem further, are trans-boundary in nature ad hence there is always war for water. As it has been said, the future war will be fought for water and not for power or territory. For example, the Saq Ram sandstone aquifer shared between Saudi Arabia and Jordan; the Umm er Raduma Eocene limestone aquifer shared between Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman. These are formation-waters and once the aquifer is emptied, no more water can be withdrawn from it. Here is a rat race!!! Wo will draw excess water to support their needs……not oly for domestic but for irrigation purpose? According to the world Commission on Water, the global demand for fresh water will in crease by 50% over the next 30 years from the present consumption. Several Gulf and MENA countries have put in place desalination plants to meet fresh water demand for domestic and irrigation purposes. But utilizing fossil fuel based energy for desalination is not a viable and economic solution. Fresh water cost generated by desalination is very expensive and normal person can not afford to purchase it. Further, this process emits large CO2 that is detrimental to the world. In fact countries are fighting for stabilizing CO2 in the atmosphere. A viable technology has to be developed to generate fresh water from the ses through desalination using energy that is cost effective and renewable and green. The Gulf and MENA countries have huge untapped geothermal energy source(s) that can be utilized for desalination. Countries like, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Eritrea, Kuwait, Libya, Egypt, Oman, Bahrain can use geothermal energy for desalination process there by controlling CO2 emissions from the desalination plants as well as from the power plants. Thus the future of the above countries depends on the availability of fresh water.
Agriculture, for example contributes 3% to the GDP of these countries, and because of lack of water, food imports in these countries have increased from 30 million tonnes in 2000 to greater than 70 million tonnes in 2010 and is poised to cross 100 million tonnes by 2020. For example, due to severe water scarcity, Saudi Arabia has increased its food imports from 1.9 in 2012 to 3.02 million in 2014. The annual per-capita water supply has drastically reduced from 3300 cubic metres in 1960 to less than 500 cubic metres. Not only for the Gulf and MENA countries, the entire world has to depend on sea for water. Geothermal energy is cost effective and by using this energy the cost of desalinated water could be brought down to < 3 cents / m3. Now that EGS is maturing with advancement made in drilling technology (plasma drilling will be the future technology) all the countries can be self-sufficient in food and water. Countries have to open and come out of its oil-gas glass house and start implementing new desalination process using geothermal energy. ( for more information read “ Desalination of Seawater using Geothermal Energy to Meet Future Fresh Water Demand of Saudi Arabia in Water Resources Management in J. Water Resources Management.
Installed power capacity in India grows three-and-a-half-times, from 290 GW in 2014 to over 1 075 GW in 2040. This growth in 2020 is equal to the present day generation in European Union. Coal will be the major source of energy, accounting 41% of the total share…..from the current share of 60%. This is compensated by nuclear that jumps from the current share of 2 to 4 % in 2040. All these happens only when India implements the New Policy Scenario discussed and debated by all the countries in the CoP meetings. The out come of the next meeting being held in Morocco in November 2016 will not bring any change in the over all New policy scenario. Solar PV, though shows improvement in its share, from the current 1% to 17% in 2040, the generation will not exceed 182 GW, although the country is boasting of lifting this number to 400 to 500 GW. The current plan is to bring the Solar PV capacity to 100 GW in 2022. Even this will be a herculean task. Ambition is good but in reality the country has face challenges in terms of land acquisition, network expansion, and most important….. money. Indigenous solar panel manufacturing capability may not grow to meet the demand, from the current 2.8 GW per year. China is always there to dump its panels, as it is doing now, but this undermines the very basic political slogan of “make in India and made in India”. In addition to land, (solar pv requires 7 to 8 hec for 1 MWe) clean water is major deterrent for achieving this target. The future wars will be for water….. If India is not able to solve the problem of river water now and there is no hope of solving this problem by 2020 with the current political set up of keeping the water under States’ purview. According to IEA analysis the solar PV capacity may reach 40GW in another 5 to 6 years. Ambition should be weighed with reality. It is high time the country looks at other, potential energy source…geothermal. By 2020 plasma drilling technology will be on the shelf for any one to buy and this offsets conventional drilling and cuts cost by 30 to 40% or more. Depth of drilling is not ma constraint. The country may not have sufficient hydrothermal sources but it has volumes of granites that are waiting to be harnessed for power generation. While solar depends on Sun’s energy, geothermal depends on Earth’s internal heat. There are perennial energy sources that will meet all the energy the country needs…from electricity generation to drinking water to desert countries. War for water will engulf the Gulf countries as these countries are putting their food security out their respective country. Classic example is Saudi Arabia that has stopped cultivating wheat and increased imports due to lack of fresh water for cultivation. This is true with other oil rich Gulf countries. Their investment in agriculture in other countries has increased considerably over the last few years and by 2020 it will be at its peak.
In the year 1904, Italian Mayor Piero Ginori Conti invented the first geothermal electric power plant in which steam was used to generate the power. He lit 4 bulbs and demonstrated that heat from the earth can be used for generating electricity. 1904 it was a meagre few watts and now the world geothermal (hydrothermal) electricity generation is exceeding 12000 MWe!!
This was followed by the first geothermal power plant in USA in 1922 with an installed capacity of 250 kilowatts. It was shut down due to technical glitches. Subsequently in 1960 the Pacific Gas and Electric started large scale geothermal power plant, generating 11 MWe. From 1904, the geothermal industry grew from a few watts to 12000 MWe ( geothermal heat is not included). If those inventors and scientists thought that geothermal is very expensive and can produce only a few watts of electricity, the world would have come to a stand still. Some of the so “called advisor” should take advise from the facts and advise the oil companies accordingly.
Science grows……….it was satellites initially circulating the globe, then came the animals and finally man could land on the Moon!. Countries did not sit back due to high cost of such projects. Had the govt. appointed so called “advisers” to advise them on the future of science, the world would have come to a stand still. In fact advisors should be young and dynamic and should have a vision!!! From Moon, today scientists are thinking of Mars and other planets. These experiments and trials are expensive ……no doubt…but they are not going to eat away the salaries of advisors.
The Soultz experiment took several years to create heat exchanger in granites…..the out come is the amount of information the scientists gathered …..it is enormous ( this is true with Fenton Hill experiment too). It was expensive then …….Thanks…..there was no advisor sat on the board of these projects!! Similarly the Cooper basin experiment……it is not the amount of power that was generated and cost. It is the technology. Yes they are expensive today and down the years…they will be cost effective. Is it not true with oil industry? Oil simply did not flow with one bore well!! True with shale gas.
Tomorrow ‘s world demand is going to be fresh water and energy. Fossil fuels will dwindle at some point of time in our life time. Countries are going to fight for fresh water. Desalination is the future. Today desalination of seawater is expensive…but it is question of do or die. Thanks…no advisors advised the govts of Arab countries to stop desalination process using fossil fuel because it is expensive!! Vision is what one needs to meet the future demand. Like Sun, the only perennial energy source is Earth. Hydrothermal systems are site specific while granite are there everywhere!!. The MIT scientists sat together with a vision and brought out the 2006 EGS report for the world to read and digest. We want the world to have equal opportunities with respect to fresh water and energy…clean energy. In future conventional drilling technology will be replaced by plasma drilling….what for the advisors are appointed?…to advise the firms on what the future looks like in terms of cost, technology and environment.
Now it is official. Standards for geothermal energy is set to be followed by all the countries. All the geothermal quacks, who really degraded this energy with their shallow knowledge have to go back to their drawing boards and understand simple things like “tariff fixation”. Half knowledge, so called scientific community, working in high profile organization need to understand now that there is science behind to fix geothermal tariff.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Committee on Sustainable Energy recently approved a global standard for reporting geothermal resources. According to the International Geothermal Association (IGA), UNECE approved the Specifications for Application of the United Nations Framework for Fossil Energy and Mineral Reserves and Resources 2009 (UNFC) to Geothermal Energy Resources. “In a manner consistent with the aim of the IGA, and led by Professor Gioia Falcone, the UNFC Geothermal Working Group of the IGA Resources and Reserves Committee has now produced a set of specifications for classifying, comparing and reporting estimates of geothermal potential, resources and reserves,” IGA President Juliet Newson said in an Oct. 5 statement. “The specifications will now be maintained through regular review, through a transparent governance structure, and process, that allows input from all stakeholders.”
The members of the IGA Resources and Reserves committee include:
Miklos ANTICS, Paul Brophy, Dornadula Chandrasekharam,
Luis Carlos Gutiérrez-Negrín, Horst Kreuter, Jim Lawless
Juliet Newson , “Atty. Fernando S. Peñarroyo, Ladsi Rybach, Horst Rueter
Benedikt Steingrímsson, “paolo.conti, Zhonghe Pang, Eduardo Iglesias Rodríguez , Inga Moeck, Gioia Falcone, Meseret Teklemariam Zemedkun
Colin Harvey, Beata Kepinska, Paolo Romagnoli, Albert Genter, Kasumi Yasukawa, Surya Darma, Sadiq Zarrouk, Colin Williams, Alison Thompson,Geoffrey Giudetti, Gordon Bloomquist, Manfred Hochstein, Hugo Fernando Navas, Janos Szanyi, Marek Hajto
The IGA said that having an international system and a standardized terminology for reporting geothermal resources will build trust and understanding of the geothermal industry with investors, regulators and the general public. The work to develop the UNFC geothermal specifications was carried out under UNECE’s Memorandum of Understanding with the IGA. Scott Foster, director of the sustainable energy division of UNECE, noted during the UNECE’s 25th session on Sept. 30: “The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development has just celebrated its first anniversary. Application of UNFC to renewable energy resources is a priority for our member states, and inclusion of geothermal energy in UNFC will help to attain Sustainable Development Goal #7 by improving the positioning of geothermal within the policy and investment communities.”
Now it is high time that the ministry of new and renewable energy read this document carefully, understand and redraft its policy document. It is still not clear whether geothermal falls under ministry of power or ministry of new and renewable energy. Looks line no one is serious in developing this energy. Now countries are looking at deep geothermal by harnessing heat from the granites….as has been done by France and Australia and very soon by USA. India has a very large volume of such granites and several reports and papers have appeared on the potential of these granites. Who viewed these papers or who read these reports?? In fact in the world geothermal congress or world renewable energy conferences the Indian VIPs were never seen in the round table conferences. It is high time that India brings out a policy to delegate only the competent people to attend the meetings and conferences. For the benefit of developing geothermal as a powerful source of renewable energy, quacks should be kept away from such meetings. During one of the group discussions related to geothermal, one senior scientist suggests that the tariff for geothermal should be fixed at Rs 7 per unit. When asked how this number is arrived…the scientists blinks….his attitude is ,,,float a fancy number so that he will be quoted in the media
